BSNL / MTNL 3G Data Card Troubleshooting Guide

If you are using BSNL or MTNL 3G data card and stuck up somewhere, then it’s very difficult to get a solution as the customer care doesn’t give right solution because may they are not equipped with troubleshooting information.And if you try to get solution from the service center in your area ,then chances are that you will have to run from pillar to post without getting solution.

But if you leave the customer service and troubleshooting part aside ,the service is really very good as the 3G download speed is amazing.You would certainly love to surf on 3G and also no other operator is offering 3G so far so you do not have any other option too.

BSNL and MTNL are offering 3G data card by bundling the 3G SIM with the data card device of Terracom,iLemon,Micromax,Capital and huawei . Data cards are available in the range of Rs.1800 to Rs.2500 and come with huge amount of free data.For example terracom data card of MTNL has 20 GB free data usage which can be used for a period of two months.

So if you are using 3G data card of BSNL or MTNL and finding some problem in getting connected then below is some troubleshooting tips which can be of some help.

If you have just purchased:

1. The SIM which you get from service center normally takes some time in activation at their end. So first make sure your SIM is activated by MTNL /BSNL and then make a call to make complete the activation process. Also make sure that SIM is placed in the data card in the correct position.

2. Normally Data card drivers gets automatically installed the moment you connect it to your PC but sometimes due to virus or other modem drivers in the PC it may not get installed easily. So first make sure your PC does not have any virus and also uninstall other modem drivers like Tata Photon/Airtel data card modem etc. and then restart your PC and then try installing the data card.

3. Now once the data card drivers are installed then go to Connection to select the proper profile where APN is provided. In most of the cases old APNs are inbuilt so you will be required to make a new profile with new APN. For that go to Connection and click on Add to make a new profile. Under profile name type MTNL. In Number menu type *99#. Leave user name and password blank. Then type mtnl.net under APN menu. Save this profile and click on ‘Set Default’ button.

4. Now go to Network button and select UMTS/HSDPA so that you constantly get 3G network but if you are using data card while moving then we suggest for Automatic so that you will get 2G speed in non-3G areas and your connectivity is not affected.

The above steps may appear to be complicated so it’s better to get clear idea of everything at point of purchase.

But once when your data card starts getting connected then service is very good. It hardly takes seconds to get connected and speed too is good.overall it’s very convenient to use.

If you are old customer and have been using it for sometime:

If you have been using it for some time and suddenly you find it difficult to connect then try few things:

1. See whether your PC is able to detect the data card device and SIM, if not then there may be one of the following reasons:

i.) Virus in PC

ii.) Data card connector or USB port may have gone faulty. Try data card in other PC and USB port to identify this problem.

iii). SIM may not be properly inserted or might have been damaged

2. See whether correct settings are selected

3. Sometimes even when you are getting 3G network you may not get connected.In that case try to connect with 2G network. For that go to network selection in driver interface and select 2G /GSM network only and then connect.Many atimes when 3G network doesn’t work you get connected to 2G network.This is an standby option.

Try above steps and may be you can troubleshoot.

Dear readers if you have some other troubleshooting tips the please share it with us for the benefit of other users. Please mail ur your suggestions and feedback at telegurus@gmail.com

There are 26 Comments.

i reside in bangalore, i use huawei e156 datacard for bsnl 3g sim.
i frequently disconnected while browsing or downloading . i see this as a well known problem,still i didn’t found solution. my os is win 7

i reside in coimbatore, i use smart bro for bsnl 3g sim. it was worked wel for a week after that when i connect it shows that “the remote computer is not established…..”like that it shows . my os is xp
can u pls help me to overcome this problem

i bought new bsnl 3g data card.i am using windows 7 OS.while inserting my data card into laptop in USB port it shows message as driver is not installed successfully… what to do plz if any one know solution means post that…

teracom data card is having some prblem with windows 7 inherently which could be due to its drivers. Both BSNL and MTNL have not been able to give proper resolution to this problem. You can try uninstall and reinstall process once and if nothing works then i suggest get windows xp on you pc.

Hi All,
Iam from Hyderabad using usb bsnl 3G data card for internet browsing purpose for my laptop, recently I purchased a new Apple brand IPAD2 with wi-fi facility. Here my ipad2 is not useful for browsing internet. One of my suggested me to purchase TL-MR3220 3G/3.75G Wireless Lite N Router so that you share internet for more computers through Wi-Fi . Please help me how to configure usb bsnl 3Gdatacard with tl-mr3220 router to work my ipad2.
Nareshnaresh_thotakura@yahoo.com

Hi all, I have a strange & serious problem. I have got a new BSNL EV-DO data card for my laptop. My laptop configuration is 1.5 GB RAM, Intel dual core processor. I have got Windows XP OS. I have installed the driver for the EV-DO card which is provided by ZTE. Once I start the net and while browsing in Mozilla firefox within 5 minutes the net gets disconnected and I will not be able to connect it back & also I am not able to safely eject the data card. The audio will also not work. Again i need to restart the system and again after 5 minutes of connectivity the net gets disconnected. Can anyone plz suggest me some permanent solution for this. I saw this problem while using MTS data card also.

My micromax MMX 310G modem using BSNL 2G SIM and also others (SIM), is not working when i connect it to my pc via usb a red light comes after a few second it goes then no light comes my computer is also not reading it.It was working fine before how has this happen…. i had tried in XP SP2,SP3 Windows 7 in different pc but having same problem pls solve my problem and do me a favour…..

I have bought a BSNl 3G data card. After installation, in UTMS settings which network selection mode do I need to give and what is the connection procedure like the profile name, number, username, password, apn etc… what do I enter for all these options?

Sir,
I m using BSNL 3G data card(manufactured by teracom and of 3.6mbps). Its software is LW272 v1.0. I got it in 2011.
It was working properly till feb 2012. Now the datacard is detected only for 10seconds and device gets disconnected automatically. I m using a windows7 32 bit. All my antiviruses are uptodate and there are no virus currently in my system. Pls let me know what to do to solve this.

I’ve purchased MTNL 3G USB Modem, it was working fine for few days after 10 days of using I had uninstalled the the softawre from my laptop and installed it again. Now it is not working due improper installation (it is asking for CD drivers) they didn’t give any cd while purchasing!! could any one help where to download drivers for MTNL USB Modem?

I bought this BSNL EVDO HUAWEI E156 Datacard quite a few years back & it was working fine, but now, it is not at all deducted by my laptop & no LED flickering. When I leave it for few minutes, it is getting hot. Kindly suggest me on its rectification to make it work again. Also, reply to my mail-id : p,prabakar@gmail.com Thanks